Peasants and workers

Category: Turkey

by Joe Lauria

More than two weeks after Turkey’s dramatic failed coup, what exactly happened remains shrouded in mystery leaving only speculation that has hardened into “fact” in the absence of convincing evidence.

Two main theories have emerged: The first is that this was yet another in a longline of CIA-backed coups. The other is that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan either staged or let the coup happen to give him the opportunity to consolidate his rule through a vicious and ongoing purge of his perceived enemies.

The first theory has now passed into the realm of “fact” because some commentators unquestioningly accept that the CIA tried to remove Erdogan for suddenly seeking to repair relations with Russia, Iran and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Assad is a man Erdogan has squandered substantial political capital trying to overthrow for five years.Read More »

Supporters of the ruling party rallied in Istanbul’s Taksim Party over the weekend. (Photo: Ozan Kose/AFP/Getty Image)

Human rights advocates are sounding the alarm about Turkey’s crackdown on supposed dissidents, alleging widespread torture of detainees, while the government continues with its post-coup purges of private and public institutions.

On the night of 15-16 July, Turkey went through a cataclysm that stunned the world: a huge section of the armed forces of the country (TSK in its Turkish acronym) attempted to take power from the government of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the AKP, came very close to its objective, but was ultimately defeated. Official statements of imperialist countries celebrate the triumph of democracy. Nothing can be farther from the truth. Furthermore, many commentators, remaining captive to the official explanation of the AKP government, point to the followers of Fethullah Gülen, a powerful imam who has been residing in the US for close to two decades now, as the culprit behind the coup. This is a mystification used by the AKP for various purposes, the most important being to ostracise the Gülenists and to hide from view that a much wider array of forces within the army have taken up arms. And on the left and far left, many are filled with excitement at the sight of civilians climbing over tanks and challenging with bare hands the heavily armed soldiers of the putschist forces. This, too, is a very distorted picture.

A day after Turkish leaders revoked licenses, fired, and arrested tens of thousands of teachers and civil servants allegedly linked to last week’s failed coup, national authorities on Wednesday promised to establish “a special court for trying coup plotters” as well as “a special prison” for those convicted of taking part in the putsch, according to TurkishWeekly.

Meanwhile, Istanbul mayor Kadir Topbaş told a group of protesters late Tuesday that he was planning to create a “graveyard for traitors” to bury the bodies of soldiers killed during the coup, Hurriyet Daily reported.

by Mehmet Bayram

Here is a list of assaults and provocations we received as of today. We will be updating the list as we get and verify more attacks.

01:50AM Plainclothes police are provoking the residents in Tuzlucayir, Ankara by swearing and assaulting them then trying to arrest. Those who escape the police assaults are seeking refuge in nearby apartments.

00:35AM People refuse to leave the central Ugur Mumcu street in an anti-fascist protest.

by Ferda Koç

And so there you have it: a coup attempt by the “Peace in the Homeland Junta” that was composed of unknown elements and whose ultimate reach into the state was unclear has been thwarted. Over a 100 putschists were killed, and 3,000 active officers have been detained.Read More »

Before this week it had come to be broadly accepted conventional wisdom that the days of Turkish military coups were over. After a post-World War II history in which the military had taken over the government about once every ten years, in the last couple of decades the return to the barracks appeared to be final.